YouTube May Be Getting a New ‘Podcasts’ Homepage, Audio Ads: Report

YouTube appears to have plans to take on industry giants of the podcast space like Apple and Spotify. An 84-page document has been allegedly leaked that is said to outline the roadmap laid out by the company. The document is believed to be intended for podcast publishers. According to this leaked document, YouTube is supposed to be planning to improve the podcast ingestion onto its platform. There is also expected to be a new podcast homepage with a familiar YouTube layout.

The report comes from Podnews, which claims to have its hands on an 84-page presentation produced by YouTube. It has not shared the complete presentation but focuses on a segment labelled 'Looking Ahead'. The report suggests that YouTube will get a dedicated ‘Podcasts' homepage at youtube.com/podcasts (URL currently not working) for improved search and discovery. The online video sharing platform is said to be developing easy and simple ways for podcasts to be uploaded onto its site. YouTube is also said to be planning to bring audio ads sold by both Google and other partners for its audience listening to music, podcasts, and other audio content.

YouTube is said to be updating its analytics by integrating new data metrics designed for audio-first creators. This step is intended to seamlessly integrate its data with the industry-standard podcast measurement platforms like Nielsen, Podtrac, and Chartable.

Spotify is reportedly also developing a new 'audio newsfeed' for easy discovery of podcasts on its apps. An alleged video of the new vertical feed has also surfaced which showcases a dedicated 'Podcasts' button in the app. The feed is reported to have a TikTok-style vertical layout populated by podcast clips from creators that the listener might enjoy. Spotify is believed to be using the technology developed by Podz, which it acquired last year, for automatically selecting podcast clips.